Out of sheer boredom one day, I was thinking about this (I didn't have a calculator handy, but it should be pretty close anyway):

As a kid I often wanted to have a toy deathstar, but then I didn't really understand the scale of the thing.

Since according to the official literature it's 160 km in diameter, what if I wanted to scale it based on a 6 inch action figure?

6 inch equivalent to 6 foot man (12 in = 1 ft; 1/12)

160 km = 160,000 m = 480,000 ft = 90.90... miles
(1 mile = 5,280 ft)

91 miles / 12 = 7.58.. miles or 13.34 km (!!!!!)

So the toy death star would be almost 8 miles in diameter, 40,000 feet high, making it not only the largest toy ever constructed, but the greatest engineering feat ever accomplished by man, easily dwarfing the tallest buildings. Airplanes would have to fly around it, and climbing it would put a trip to Mt. Everest to shame (requiring oxygen tanks to even attempt to approach the summit). Gathering the materials alone would be a monumental feat (is there even that much plastic in the world, if all the oil was used?).

Suffice to say, it wouldn't make any sense to build such a monster, but perhaps Kenner or Hasbro could take random blobs of plastic and market them as "debris" from the Death Star after it was blown up by the Rebels, individually labelled for collecting purposes of course (#1 recovered, #2 recovered, etc.).

Getting to thinking about toys of the other Star Wars ships like the Executor would also be problematic (as tall as the tallest building??), but maybe a regular ISD or Mon Calamari Cruiser could be constructed for play in a large parking lot or football field.

Now a toy Galaxy Class Starship (Star Trek) could be done... but it'd still be a pricey toy for rich kids or display at FAO Schwartz. ; )

Semicolon

06-25-2003, 06:08 AM

Hehe...Now that'd be something to see, in fact I'd pay to see that :)

You think too much Kurgan :)

BongoBob

06-25-2003, 06:33 AM

Dang. Thats true boredom.

Lunatic Jedi

06-25-2003, 07:05 AM

I've found that running through your house screaming and running into stuff is a sure cure for boredom! :thumbsup:

You should try it!

BongoBob

06-25-2003, 07:07 AM

I find picking up a hammer(preferrably sledge) and run into it. Repeatedly. It's Fun. Where am I? Who am I?

Semicolon

06-25-2003, 07:36 AM

You are in LF...You are BongBob and I am your conscience.

Zoom Rabbit

06-25-2003, 09:39 AM

*Ahem* :dozey: I am your curiosity.

I compel you to see what is under the teacher's skirt.

;)

[RAA]-=Chi3f=-

06-25-2003, 09:44 AM

I heard the other day at work (out of the blue) that the original Death star model was composed of model battleships. I always wondered about the complexity of the little beast, especially all the mini turrets. That would explain the drunken sailors on Luke's descent to the porthole. :D

Pad

06-25-2003, 09:50 AM

i had one of those when i was a kid. it was actually fun having such thing in your backyard. :p

[RAA]-=Chi3f=-

06-25-2003, 09:53 AM

Originally posted by Padanime
i had one of those when i was a kid. it was actually fun having such thing in your backyard. :p

A battle ship or an 8 mile Deathstar? :eek: :p

I say we all build one. Seperate our skills and fabricate an 8 mile sphere of DOOM! We could all live in it, kinda like the real world. We'd definitely need more *cough* women though. The ratio of 1 woman to every 550,000 men doesn't appeal to me. :D

HertogJan

06-25-2003, 10:19 AM

Originally posted by -=Chi3f=-
A battle ship or an 8 mile Deathstar? :eek: :p

I say we all build one. Seperate our skills and fabricate an 8 mile sphere of DOOM! We could all live in it, kinda like the real world. We'd definitely need more *cough* women though. The ratio of 1 woman to every 550,000 men doesn't appeal to me. :D

It doesn't really matter if it appeals to YOU, more important is: Do I appeal to HER!! :D :naughty:

But I want to have the superdestructive-doomsday-cannon on it though... can somebody make me one?

Semicolon

06-25-2003, 10:29 AM

Sure! One cannon coming up!

produces a 12 mile long cannon from his pants

There ya go :) Hopefully it works, forgot to BETA test it.

WolfmanNCSU

06-25-2003, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by Semicolon
Sure! One cannon coming up!

produces a 12 mile long cannon from his pants

There ya go :) Hopefully it works, forgot to BETA test it.

:rolleyes:

El Sitherino

06-25-2003, 11:28 AM

hmmmm making one would be kinda cool. they could put an aircirculator in and send it into space and we can live in it when over population gets around...oh wait that'd be now. *goes to tell NASA *

Sam Fisher

06-25-2003, 12:04 PM

Just think of the structural stresses of building it on Earth and not in space. It would break apart before we got very far.

Pad

06-25-2003, 12:07 PM

[jasper voice] you sunk my battleship! [/jasper voice]

Lunatic Jedi

06-25-2003, 08:12 PM

Actually, I've had the concepts for a real working super-powerful laser cannon in my head for some time now, and I think it could really work! GAH HA HA HA!

Seriously. I mean it. I know, it frightens me. :eek:

Sam Fisher

06-25-2003, 08:27 PM

I think "lunatic" really applies to you.:p

Darth Groovy

06-25-2003, 08:48 PM

Hasbro could do a scaled down version. After all, if you think about it, The Electronic FX Millenium Falcon, and AT-AT are not to scale either.

Captain Wilson

06-25-2003, 08:56 PM

Cannon you say....?
*runs off and returns with a cart full of Radioactive Wambats*
Now we go live on the death star relese a wambat onto a planet, wiat till it breeds an army and move to the next planet leaving the first as a pile of radioactve Wambat goo that kills everything!

ZBomber

06-25-2003, 09:45 PM

Originally posted by Darth Groovy
Hasbro could do a scaled down version. After all, if you think about it, The Electronic FX Millenium Falcon, and AT-AT are not to scale either.

They actually made a vintage death star. However, its just different rooms form the death star, so that doesn't count. ;)

StormHammer

06-25-2003, 10:01 PM

Hmmm...intriguing.

I wouldn't mind building a house that looked like the Deathstar, with that big circle of the Superlaser as a nice big window...a recreation of the Mos Eisley Cantina for a kitchen...the centre of the Millenium Falcon as a living room...

*goes off to dream*

ZBomber

06-25-2003, 10:49 PM

Originally posted by StormHammer
Hmmm...intriguing.

I wouldn't mind building a house that looked like the Deathstar, with that big circle of the Superlaser as a nice big window...a recreation of the Mos Eisley Cantina for a kitchen...the centre of the Millenium Falcon as a living room...

*goes off to dream*

Make sure there are no Trekies live around. ^_^

Lunatic Jedi

06-26-2003, 02:15 AM

And if there are, I could always lend you a laser cannon... once I build one. ;)

HertogJan

06-26-2003, 06:37 AM

Wouldn't be too helpfull... Firing it would destroy the very planet you live on... would be a shame :( Or were you planning to build something less destructive?? Shame on you, I want to destroy Mars :p Hey before you know it the Martians (sp?) do an invasion on earth :eek: :eek: And I don't want to say "I told you so :rolleyes: " if that happens ;)

Lunatic Jedi

06-26-2003, 06:47 AM

I don't plan for it to be capable of destroying an entire planet, but still capable of some nasty destruction.

Zoom Rabbit

06-26-2003, 09:37 AM

Back when they made the original death star for Star Wars, they used pre-fabricated styrene cut-outs that they molded in a limited number of configurations, but that they could arrange in such a way as to give the appearance of unlimited detail. They literally filled a studio with these little things on the floor, and filmed the spaceships dogfighting over it.

I don't think they used model battleship parts to build the death star. :dozey: Ever look at the price of a model kit? Now think about filling a sound stage with them...

There is a toy death star, but it's small (about 3" across.) It came in one of the micromachines packs, and looks convincing if you hang it in the corner of the ceiling well behind your bigger scale models. ;)

Another way to get a toy death star would be to take gray spray paint to a basketball. :D No? Oh, well...

HertogJan

06-26-2003, 10:56 AM

Originally posted by Lunatic Jedi
I don't plan for it to be capable of destroying an entire planet, but still capable of some nasty destruction.

Would it be able to destroy George W Bush??

Kurgan

06-28-2003, 05:40 PM

I posted this subject in another forum (outside of LFN) and somebody was saying I should use 10 cm for the action figure instead (the resulting death star toy would still be huge).

According to the guys who designed the models for the Death Star II in 'Return of the Jedi,' it was intended to be "over 500 miles long"

Imagine what a "toy" that would make! ; )

legameboy

06-28-2003, 06:03 PM

Wow, you sure did do your math. :D

[RAA]-=Chi3f=-

06-29-2003, 03:36 AM

Originally posted by Zoom Rabbit
Back when they made the original death star for Star Wars, they used pre-fabricated styrene cut-outs that they molded in a limited number of configurations, but that they could arrange in such a way as to give the appearance of unlimited detail. They literally filled a studio with these little things on the floor, and filmed the spaceships dogfighting over it.

I don't think they used model battleship parts to build the death star. :dozey: Ever look at the price of a model kit? Now think about filling a sound stage with them...

There is a toy death star, but it's small (about 3" across.) It came in one of the micromachines packs, and looks convincing if you hang it in the corner of the ceiling well behind your bigger scale models. ;)

Another way to get a toy death star would be to take gray spray paint to a basketball. :D No? Oh, well...

I quote a friend mind you, a friend that heard a rumor from a person whom... ah who cares. For all we know the G. Luc posse could have been given a good deal on toy parts. We are talking the late 70s after all, where battleships weren't so pricey (or were they?). One thing is for certain, the battleship would cost nearly the same as... oh say a can of Rustoleum or Krypton can of spray paint. Since they wanted everything grey (because grey is cool) they could save cost by buying a grey toy with lots of little guns and S$&%t all over it. Eliminate hours of pain-staking paint detailing. What better toy than a model destroyer or carrier? Hmmmm? Hmmmmmmmmmm? Think about it (or don't I don't care, lol).

Zoom Rabbit

06-29-2003, 07:57 PM

The styrene cut-outs were molded in gray plastic. ;)

This can be read about in The Art of Star Wars. I have no idea if they still print it...it came out in the early eighties.